Czech Republic Industrial production

Czech Republic: Industry picks up in March

May 7, 2015

In March, industrial production grew 6.2% over the same month last year, coming in above the 4.5% expansion observed in February. According to the Statistical Office, March’s expansion mainly came on the back of increased manufacture of vehicles and trailers, rubber and plastic products as well as metal products.

A sequential comparison shows that industrial production swung from a 0.6% rise in February to a 0.3% contraction in March.

The trend continued to moderate as annual average growth in industrial production inched down from 4.5% in February to 4.4% in March, which marked the lowest rate in 10 months.

At its first meeting of the new year, held on 1 February, the Czech National Bank (CNB) unanimously decided to increase the two-week repo rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%, and the Lombard rate by 50 basis points to 1.50%; the discount rate was, however, left unchanged at 0.05%.